Creating an Effective Presentation

Chapter 9 of Envision, “Delivering Presentations,” was a particularly interesting chapter for me. I really enjoy giving presentations in class more than I enjoy writing a paper. I found quite a few things helpful in this chapter. The first section that interested me was Aristotle’s branches of oratory. A lot of things Aristotle says interests me. The three branches include judicial/forensic: defending or accusing and dealing with the past and what’s right or wrong, deliberative/legislative: politics and what might happen in the future and what may be beneficial or harmful, and epideictic/ceremonial: dealing with the present and praising or blaming. Of the three, I find judicial least interesting and epideictic most interesting. Epideictic seems to be more personal in nature. The next section I found interesting was the section in which the book compared Steve Jobs and Bono, mostly because they are two of my top 5 idols. The section I found most helpful and relatable was “Choosing Methods of Delivery.” It talks all about exactly how to deliver a presentation in the most effective way. I enjoyed this section because it talks about the fun part of a presentation. It reviewed some fundamental elements of delivery such as stance/posture, pacing, gesture, visuals, and style. It also talked about the importance of memory and delivery in helping, not hindering, your presentation. The visual organization called “architectural mnemonic technique” was brought up. I had never heard this phrase before. The book defines it as “a method in which you associate a phrase to a room or a part of a house so that as you look around during your presentation you receive visual clues to trigger your memory.” This is something I do automatically and I had no idea it had a name! I thought it was a quirky thing I just did to help myself.